A review of the weekend's action in the French Ligue 1, including a comprehensive victory for Lorient at Marseille.

Marseille blew the chance to return to top spot in Ligue 1 in spectacular fashion as Lorient ran out comfortable 3-0 winners at Stade Velodrome.

OM have endured a torrid time on home soil in recent weeks, with Sunday's drubbing coming just a fortnight after they shipped four goals in a damaging defeat to title rivals Lyon.

The Stade Velodrome was enveloped in gloom once more today as goals from Jeremie Aliadiere, Benjamin Corgnet and Kevin Monnet-Paquet condemned the Mediterranean club to defeat, with the fans turning their ire against club president Vincent Labrune at the final whistle.

Leaders Lyon defied Mouhamadou Dabo's 55th-minute dismissal to beat derby rivals St Etienne 1-0 and extend their unbeaten run at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard to 18 years.

ASSE looked set to finally beat Lyon on their home turf when Dabo, who also saw red in this fixture last year, was given his marching orders for a headbutt on Max Gradel that was reminiscent of Zinedine Zidane's famous red in the 2006 World Cup final.

But just 10 minutes later Michel Bastos smashed in a 25-yard free-kick before St Etienne's night completely fell apart with the dismissal of substitute Alejandro Alonso.

Bordeaux missed the chance to move into Ligue 1's top three as they were held to a goalless draw at lowly Reims.

The visitors had their chances, with Kossi Agassa making several decent saves and Yoan Gouffran volleying just wide late on.

But Reims actually had the better opportunities as Floyd Ayite hit the crossbar and Florent Ghisolfi forced a superb save from Cedric Carrasso.

Paris St Germain sounded a warning shot to their Ligue 1 title rivals with a 4-0 thrashing of lowly Evian.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored one and made one for Ezequiel Lavezzi as the hosts raced into a 2-0 lead after half an hour, while Thiago Motta and Kevin Gameiro added gloss to the scoreline late on as Carlo Ancelotti's men closed to within two points of leaders Lyon.

Fifth-placed Valenciennes and sixth-spotted Rennes both lost ground in the title race.

Rennes looked all set to climb to fourth place after second-half goals by Julien Feret and Romain Alessandrini put them in the driving seat against Brest, but the visitors rallied with goals from Benoit Lesoimier and Charlison Benschop in the final 20 minutes.

Brest lost Ahmed Kantari to a second yellow card in the last minute following an altercation with the referee, but held on for a 2-2 draw.

Valenciennes needed a second-half own goal to earn a 1-1 draw against bottom-of-the-table Nancy at the Stade Marcel Picot.

Jordan Loties opened the scoring for the hosts just after the half-hour and that looked to be enough to get Jean Fernandez's side only a second league win of the season, until Massodio Haidara put through his own net 17 minutes from time.

Nancy remained at the foot of the standings - still level on points with Troyes, who drew 1-1 at home to Nice.

Troyes came undone at the death for a second straight game as Dario Cvitanich earned Nice a point, cancelling out Stephane Darbion's close-range opener at the Stade de l'Aube.

The champions are not the same side that won the title last season, but they had little problem seeing off relegation-threatened Ajaccio thanks to goals from John Utaka, Remy Cabella and Younes Belhanda.

Ten-man Sochaux moved out of the relegation zone with a 1-1 home draw against Lille.

The mid-table visitors, who have been somewhat off the pace this season after finishing third in the last campaign, took the lead in the 62nd minute through Nolan Roux.

Sochaux hit back immediately through Tunisia international Yassin Mikari, although they had to hang on in the closing stages after Loic Poujol was dismissed for a second bookable offence.